Senior BJP leader and former Union Minister Birender Singh is in favour of the party contesting the 2024 Haryana Assembly and Lok Sabha polls independently, saying it has a “very strong” base in the state and does not need anyone’s support.
He asserted that the BJP and the Jannayak Janta Party came together in 2019 to form the government in Haryana as both did not have majority on their own and it was not about contesting the elections together.
“Because BJP is now a party which is having a very strong base all over the state. It does not need anyone. When there is a need then alliance is done. Situation (for a tie-up) comes when a person thinks the position is not that strong that they cannot fight polls independently. But that is not the case for our party which has been in power in the state for nine years now,” he said.
The 77-year-old veteran leader, whose son Brijendra Singh is the BJP MP from Hisar, said the BJP formed an alliance with the Ajay Singh Chautala-led JJP to give a stable government.
“When we did not have majority, so we had to take support. Independents were also giving support, but to be more positive and more stable we sought the support of JJP. To form a government, the need was at that time, but not to contest elections (in alliance),” said Birender Singh, the grandson of Sir Chhotu Ram, a prominent peasant leader during the pre-independence era who championed the interest of farmers. Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala has said the alliance has worked to make the state progressive for the last three-and-a-half years “but what lies in the future, I am not an astrologer to predict that”.
Haryana BJP president Om Prakash Dhankar recently asserted the BJP-JJP alliance was on a firm footing and doing well and said any decision on contesting next year’s parliamentary election jointly will be taken at a later stage.
Currently, all 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana are held by BJP members. In the 2019 assembly polls, the JJP won 10 seats while BJP got 40. Six of the seven Independents are also supporting the BJP-JJP government.
Replying to a question, Birender Singh said although it was early to predict but BJP’s fight in the next year’s state assembly polls should mainly be with the Congress.
“How AAP performs in Punjab may have slight impact in Haryana,” he added.
About next year’s Lok Sabha polls, Birender Singh said, “BJP will form the government, I don’t see any problem there”. To another question, he said he will remain politically active, but he will stay away from electoral politics.
When asked in a lighter vein if there is any chance of him contesting the assembly polls, Singh quipped, “No, No”. “Five decades in electoral politics is a long time,” he said.
Ahead of the 2014 assembly polls, Birender Singh, who had once earned the sobriquet of “tragedy king” of Haryana politics, joined the BJP ending his over four-decade association with the Congress.